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From: nmm@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.object
Subject: Re: Software "Engineers"
Message-ID: <1991Apr27.184424.7019@cl.cam.ac.uk>
Date: 27 Apr 91 18:44:24 GMT
References: <3844@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> <3056@cirrusl.UUCP> <1136@tetrauk.UUCP> <1652@inset.UUCP> <1991Apr26.015053.15858@tkou02.enet.dec.com>
Reply-To: nmm@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren)
Organization: U of Cambridge Comp Lab, UK
Lines: 21

>Let me just quote Henry Ford at you: "An engineer can design for ten cents
>what any damn fool can do for a Dollar".

Henry Ford had a good point, but there are other aspects of good engineering.

When I started driving, a front-wheel blowout at motorway speeds (70 mph)
was usually followed by the car somersaulting and often by the death of the
driver and all passengers.  Recently, I had one of them and the car remained
so steady that I disbelieved my senses and thought that it must be a rear
wheel.  I enquired and understand that this is due to careful design of the
steering geometry and (particularly) the wheel shape.

When you use a well-engineered product, you don't notice its design; it just
does what you want it to do.  When things go badly wrong, it fails gracefully
and avoids fatal side-effects.

How many well-engineered items of software do you know about?

Nick Maclaren
University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
nmm@cl.cam.ac.uk